Over the last few weeks, Maharashtra set a new benchmark for the phrase ?free-for-all?. What began as yet another scandal involving politicians, bureaucrats and defence officials allegedly violating rules to pocket plush apartments on the most expensive patch of real estate in the country?s most expensive city, went on to open, not a can, but a barrel of worms.
The alleged corruption and nepotism in relation to land and housing in Mumbai, however, is seen only as the tip of the iceberg.
Much has been written about the woeful infrastructure in the country?s commercial capital or the farmers? suicides in Vidarbha. But Maharashtra also has the second-highest per capita income in the country among major states after Haryana. At Rs 54,867 for 2009-10, it is way above the national average of Rs 37,490. Yet, 25 of the 35 districts in the state are below that national average, showing how skewed progress and opportunities have been towards the major urban centres in the state.
According to the state?s 2009-10 economic survey, almost 31% of the population in the state was below the poverty line in 2004-05 against a national average of 27.5%. With 3.17 crore people below the poverty line in 2004-05, it ranked third in the country behind UP and Bihar. This, despite being the richest state in the country with a Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Rs 6,92,749 crore in 2008-09 and accounting for 13% of national GDP. While Maharashtra attracted a fifth of all the FDI into India between 1991 and 2007 and saw a commitment of $17 billion being made, again the highest in the country, according to a macroeconomic review by economist SD Naik for the Maharashtra Economic Development Council, it hardly made any investment in the power sector in successive Five-Year Plans and today has a 5,500 mw deficit.
While 55% of the population continues to depend on farming for a living, the share of agriculture and allied activities in GSDP declined from 22.1% in 1980-81 to 12.1% in 2008-09, Naik says in the MEDC Digest published in May.
Again, while its literacy rate of almost 77% is above the national average of 65, its sex ratio was 922 in 2001 against the national average of 933, and is predicted to fall further to 915 in 2011. In 2008, the state topped the country in communal violence with 6,464 cases registered since 2000. Last year, its conviction rate in cases of atrocities against Dalits was a pathetic 2.9%, the lowest in the country.
Although much of the blame for this sorry state of affairs is laid at the door of the political class, an analysis of why this came to be is a complex story of caste and regional conflicts, urban-rural divides and the quality of leaders produced by the Congress, which has ruled the state for most of its last 50 years. The Marathas, who account for about 35% of the population, have held a feudal grip over power from their bastions in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada.
Maratha political families, of Vilasrao Deshmukh in Latur, SB Chavan-Ashok Chavan in Nanded or Sharad Pawar in Pune/Baramati, to name three from recent memory, have not looked at development beyond their family boroughs, says Suhas Palshikar, professor of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Pune. ?There is no development outside their immediate cities because of their short-sightedness,? says Palshikar. ?Academics, analysts and the media short-circuit this debate by blaming corruption for most of the problems.?
Veteran social activist Anna Hazare, who has been instrumental in initiating legislation such as the RTI Act, agrees with Palshikar. ?There is criminalisation of politics and nexus between politicians and land sharks. There is no visionary among politicians,? he says.
The rot has had its milestones. The nexus between politicians, builders and contractors in Mumbai, for instance, is seen in the development of the city in the early 1970s under then chief minister Vasantrao Naik. Naik was instrumental in the reclamation of land from the sea in south Mumbai that led to the construction of towers and was then hailed as a visionary move. But it also opened up new avenues for politicians to extend their influence.
Chief minister AR Antulay openly doled out cement quotas to those donating funds for an outfit floated by him in the name of Indira Gandhi, leading to his ouster in 1982. In 1986, CM Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar had to quit when he was found to be involved in getting his daughter?s MBBS exam marks increased. Shiv Sena CM Manohar Joshi had to quit after his name figured in a property deal involving his son-in-law while Sharad Pawar has faced allegations of involvement in questionable land deals, the latest being the Lavasa city project.
As political parties were courted by builders, there were shady land deals and the 1990s witnessed three major ?mill murders?: industrialist Sunit Khatau, union leader Datta Samant, and mill owner Vallabhai Thakkar, all in 1997.
The bureaucracy has not remained far behind. Pune-based Madhav Godbole, a former Union home secretary, says standards of honesty and efficiency that were hallmarks of administration in Maharashtra don?t exist any longer. Ministers have taken charge of implementation of projects ? ?the meat is in the implementation,? Godbole says ? while civil servants are involved in policy matters, a complete contradiction of the civil services? real role.
Additional reporting by Rakshit Sonawane